Danny Boyle doubted Olympic Games role over defence missiles

Filmmaker DANNY BOYLE almost walked away from his role directing the 2012 London Olympic Games Opening Ceremony when he found out defence missiles had been positioned on buildings close to his London home.

PUBLISHED: 18:53, Mon, Mar 4, 2013

The Oscar winner attracted rave reviews for his work on the spectacular opening event last summer (12), and recently revealed he turned down a knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II for his work on the show.

However, Boyle has now admitted he came close to quitting the project when he discovered surface-to-air missiles were placed on sites around London, including residential building blocks, in a bid to prevent terrorist attacks at the Games.

He tells Live magazine, "The battles were exhausting. My lowest point was the Rapier missiles, which were positioned on buildings near where I live. The Olympics is a festival of peace, for God's sake. I was very close to walking away.

"I thought it was morally wrong. I wanted to go out and say, 'I would prefer to risk being blown up and all 80,000 of us die than have Rapier missiles on top of buildings.' It was just one of the inherent contradictions in the Olympic movement to do with scale and ethos which are impossible to reconcile."

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